qathet Regional District provides a wide range of services to the residents and visitors of our region. The range of services offered is vast, from fire protection, to parks and campgrounds, to docks and barge landing sites, to cemeteries, to solid waste management and many more. The land, land improvements, marine facilities, sanitary and water systems, buildings and structures, vehicles, and machinery and equipment (collectively called “assets”) used to provide these services must all be operated, maintained, replaced and disposed of appropriately in order to ensure sustainable service delivery, to adhere to regulatory requirements, and to meet the needs and expectations of our citizens.
In the Regional District’s 2020-2023 Strategic Plan, the Board of Directors listed Governance/Management Excellence as a Strategic Priority with areas of focus identified as, “Effectively plan for and manage existing and new assets” and “Make decisions with consideration to risk, costs, health and safety, and long term sustainability”.
qathet Regional District’s work in the area of Asset Management has been featured in the August 2020 edition of PR Living (Page 26) and in the Winter 2020 (Page 6) and Fall 2020 (Page 17) editions of Asset Management BC’s newsletter.
Why Invest in Asset Management?
qathet Regional District’s Asset Management Program
Asset Management is an integrated approach involving planning, finance, engineering, operations and emergency services to effectively manage existing and new assets to maximize benefits, reduce risk and provide satisfactory levels of service to community users in a socially, environmentally, economically and culturally sustainable manner.
The Union of British Columbia Municipalities in partnership with Asset Management BC developed a BC Framework to support local governments in moving toward service, asset and financial sustainability through an asset management approach. This approach is represented graphically below.
The Regional District’s Asset Management and Strategic Initiatives department has developed qathet’s Asset Management Program. The Board of Directors adopted the Regional District’s Asset Management Policy in April of 2019 which defines the guiding principles for the development and integration of the program and delineates the roles and responsibilities for the delivery of the program. In September of 2022, the Board adopted the 2023-2027 Asset Management Strategy. The strategy reiterates the objective, method and guiding principles for the program. It includes a roadmap that lays out specific action items to be accomplished by the Regional District Asset Management and Strategic Initiatives department over the next five years.